Easy Kimbap (Korean Sushi Roll)

Today I’m sharing an easy kimbap recipe. In Korea, we call it Yachae Kimbap (야채 김밥). It means vegetable kimbap and this is the most basic kimbap variety available in Korea.

While the name indicates that it’s vegetable oriented kimbap, it’s not necessarily a vegetarian kimbap.

It does include some processed meat such as korean ham and imitation crab meat. But if you’re after vegetarian kimbap, you can simply omit these and perhaps add some cooked seasoned tofu.

This easy kimbap somewhat resembles California roll, but as you can gather they taste different. In my opinion easy kimbap has more savory and subtle flavor than California roll.

Anyway, kimbap is a popular picnic food in Korea. I always looked forward to my school picnic day because my mom would get up early and make these delicious rolls for me. Our kitchen smelled like toasted sesame oil all morning!

4 sticks of BBQ Kimbap ham, cut into long strips if you didn’t buy the pre-cut version (available at a Korean grocery store)

4 yellow radish pickle (danmuji), cut into long strips if you didn’t buy the pre-cut version (available at a Korean / Japanese grocery store)

(optional) 12 strips seasoned edible burdock root (available at a Korean grocery store. You can buy the one that’s packaged together with yellow radish pickle like this picture. It’s also sold individually.)

Alternative Ingredients / Substitution

How to Make Kimbap

1. Rinse the spinach and parboil it in rapidly boiling water (30 seconds to 1 minute). Drain the water away and run some cold water over the spinach. Gently squeeze the spinach to remove any excess water. Put the spinach into a bowl. Add 1/8 tsp salt and 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil then mix them well.

2. Pre-heat a pan/skillet. Add a small dash of cooking oil and spread it around the pan. Add the beaten egg and cook both sides well over medium heat. Place the egg omelette on a cutting board and cut it into long strips.

3. In a heated pan, lightly cook the carrots, crab sticks and kimbap ham (about 1 min per ingredients), separately, and over medium heat. (Some people use these raw, but I prefer cooking them first for my kimbap.)

4. Place the cooked rice into a mixing bowl then add 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil and 1/4 tsp fine sea salt (or more to taste). Mix them well with a rice spatula.

5. Gather all the kimbap ingredients at the ‘kimbap rolling station’. This makes it easy to assemble.

6. Place one dried seaweed sheet on the bamboo mat (shiny side down). Put the rice on the seaweed sheet then spread it evenly and thinly to cover about 2/3 of the seaweed. (Leave about 5cm / 2 inches gap at the top of the seaweed).

7. Now fill the seaweed with the filing ingredients. Make sure you evenly use the ingredients so that you’re not short of them later.

Watch How I Roll My Kimbap

Place one yellow radish pickle at about 1/3 point of the seaweed then add three burdock strips, one ham strip, one crab stick around it. Then pile up a few eggs strips, carrot sticks, and some spinach. Then roll the seaweed.

If the seaweed doesn’t stick, paste some water on the gap you left in step 6. You can also use a few grains of cooked rice in this gap. Set the rolled kimbap aside.

8. Repeat the step 6 and 7 with the remaining ingredients.

9. Line up all kimbap on a cutting board and paste some sesame oil (1 Tbsp) around the seaweed surface. Slice kimbap into bite size pieces. Serve.

How to Serve Kimbap

You normally serve kimbap with sliced yellow radish pickles. It doesn’t require a dipping sauce like sushi rolls do. However, if you want, you can serve it with some soy sauce.

How to Store Kimbap

Sliced kimbap in an air tight container can be refrigerated for several hours without compromising the flavor and the texture. However, if you store these kimbap overnight, the rice will most likely go dry.

If planning on eating it the next day, store kimbap unsliced and keep them well packaged in the fridge. Leave at room temperature about 30 mins prior to serving then slice. Even with this effort, kimbap rice could still go dry, but less then storing sliced kimbap. Therefore, it’s best to eat it all up on the day you make it.

Many Koreans coat day old kimbap in beaten egg mixture and pan fry them first before eating them. It is supposed to disguise the dryness of the kimbap.

2 to 4imitation crab sticks(depending on the length), cut in half length ways

4sticksBBQ Kimbap ham, cut into long strips if you didn’t buy the pre-cut version (available at a Korean grocery store)

4yellow radish pickle(danmuji), cut into long strips if you didn’t buy the pre-cut version (available at a Korean / Japanese grocery store)

12stripsseasoned edible burdock root(optional), (available at a Korean grocery store. You can buy the one that’s packaged together with yellow radish pickle like this picture. It’s also sold individually.)

Rinse the spinach and parboil it in rapidly boiling water (30 seconds to 1 minute). Drain the water away and run some cold water over the spinach. Gently squeeze the spinach to remove any excess water. Put the spinach into a bowl. Add 1/8 tsp salt and 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil then mix them well.

Pre-heat a pan/skillet. Add a small dash of cooking oil and spread it around the pan. Add the beaten egg and cook both sides well over medium heat. Place the egg omelette on a cutting board and cut it into long strips.

In a heated pan, lightly cook the carrots, crab sticks and kimbap ham (about 1 min per ingredients), separately, and over medium heat. (Some people use these raw, but I prefer cooking them first for my kimbap.)

Place the cooked rice into a mixing bowl then add 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil and 1/4 tsp fine sea salt (or more to taste). Mix them well with a rice spatula.

Gather all the kimbap ingredients at the ‘kimbap rolling station’. This makes it easy to assemble.

Place one dried seaweed sheet on the bamboo mat (shiny side down). Put the rice on the seaweed sheet then spread it evenly and thinly to cover about 2/3 of the seaweed. (Leave about 5cm / 2 inches gap at the top of the seaweed).

Now fill the seaweed with the filing ingredients. Make sure you evenly use the ingredients so that you’re not short of them later.

Here’s how I do it. (A short video instruction within the post above.) Place one yellow radish pickle at about 1/3 point of the seaweed then add three burdock strips, one ham strip, one crab stick around it. Then pile up a few eggs strips, carrot sticks, and some spinach. Then roll the seaweed.

If the seaweed doesn’t stick, paste some water on the gap you left in step 6. You can also use a few grains of cooked rice in this gap. Set the rolled kimbap aside.

Repeat the step 6 and 7 with the remaining ingredients.

Line up all kimbap on a cutting board and paste some sesame oil (1 Tbsp) around the seaweed surface. Slice kimbap into bite size pieces. Serve.

Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all photography and content on this site is the intellectual property of Sue Pressey of My Korean Kitchen. Please do not copy and/or paste full recipes and images to any social media channels or websites without my prior written consent. This is strictly prohibited.
You may however, use a single image and a summary of my article in your own words, provided that proper attribution is given to myself and an appropriate link back to my original recipe. Thank you.

Disclosure: My Korean Kitchen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by adverting and linking to Amazon.com.

My goodness. This is a tough question to answer! As you already know, seaweed is the backbone of this recipe. Lol. Perhaps you can use a rice paper? You will have to cut the ingredients shorter to fit in, of course.
Alternatively (for even healthier option), you can use a vegetable sheet (e.g. cucumber or zucchini) using this tool (http://amzn.to/2EypM8m), and make a vegetable rolls. Just don’t expect the same taste as the traditional kimbap! 😉

Hi Camilo, seasoned edible burdock root is available in most Korean grocery stores. They are one of the essential Kimbap ingredients. It’s kept in the fridge. It is often sold with yellow Korean radish pickle (Danmuji, 단무지). – They are packed in a separate bag but attached to each other. I hope you can find it!

hi , i live in india. i’m so interested to have kimbap in my life ,. i dont know wher it is available in india,. so i want to make it by my own i can make it but i dont know what is this laver sheet and what it is made of,. i will be go glad if you please let me know how to make that laver sheet
thank you

i would like 2 make kimbap but my problem is, I found a hard time looking for a shop who sell dried seaweed sheets….can you recommend me some probably a shop who allows online shopping here in the philippines particularly here in zamboanga???
thanx so much

Kimbap is great. Fantastic for road trips when you don’t really want to stop and find a restaurant to eat at.
There are as many variations as there are people who make it. Some other ingredients to try – cucumber, kimchi, Korean spicy pork, smoked sweet squid, chicken breast strips —-

Hi,
I was reading about Kimbap and look for more recipes. To me, it seems like people in korea make bulgogi kimbap more. Does that mean I just need to change BBQ ham to bulgogi and the rest veggies are the same to make bulgogi kimbap? Also, I read that the other variation of kimbap can be lightly fry with egg coating. Does that mean I can lightly fry bulgogi kimbap or vegetable kimbap (your recipe) with egg coating or I have to change some ingredients?

About korean’s egg roll(seaweed inside)-What kinds of ingredients can be fillings of the egg roll? What many ingredients normally inside the egg roll? thanks a lot!